


Another Door Opens

by serafina19



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 02:54:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10527354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serafina19/pseuds/serafina19
Summary: Captain Holt and Kevin finally decide to follow through on having an honest-to-goodness wedding. At the reception, Amy has a surprise for Jake, not realizing how much had changed in the last year. Season 3 AU.





	

It was a big day in a lot of ways for the precinct. They wanted to celebrate the return of their captain, the fitting timing of his return coinciding with his vow renewal ceremony. It was smiles all around, but little words were spoken, as Holt requested. Once the end of the day came, Amy packed up her stuff, knowing that she had some work to do. Her dress wasn't here and she had one of the hardest jobs to keep Peralta in line tonight.

It was funny, thinking of how so much had changed between them, yet nothing had. There was that moment after Holt was promoted, but work had kept them too busy to talk about it, as Dozerman really was a stickler for efficiency and constantly interrupted any potential conversation. Eventually, the moment passed, Dozerman's high-stress lifestyle caught up to him and the Vulture came in. In that moment, they knew that they had to be a united team, so it wasn't the time to start testing boundaries.

The last few weeks actually showed signs of her friendship with Jake improving, but she also wasn't blind. There was still a sense of _what if_ , but it wasn't a test she felt like taking anymore. The universe had spoken. Her and Jake, while a decent concept, the timing wasn't ever going to be right. And after a few months of silently accepting that fact, much to Charles' chagrin, life got better.

That didn't stop Jake's current car-less scenario and she had literally drawn the short straw to chaperone him tonight. Which was fine. It wasn't like she was going to drink a lot anyway.

So when she got home, she hopped in the shower, refreshing her body before putting on her dress, knowing it was only a matter of time before Gina would complain about it. As Amy stared at her in the mirror, she tried to bury the memory of Jake playing a donkey call a few years ago when she wore a dress to the precinct. It was different this time, she told herself as she perfected her hair, and she liked to think they were in a better place.

Although her face soured as she remembered how Jake told her that his suit was in his locker, which inevitably meant that he, and her car, would smell like old pizza and dirty socks. Or his cologne, as he tested it out in the precinct around lunchtime because he couldn’t stand the smell of Boyle’s food.

But that was enough of focusing on Jake, even though she did have to take off to pick him up at the precinct. After one last touch-up on her make-up, Amy grabbed her purse and headed down to her car. Someone was clearly looking out for her today though, because Friday rush-hour traffic was typically a nightmare, but she managed to get back to the precinct in decent time.

Of course, that didn’t stop Jake from tsking her once he opened the door. "Amy Santiago, late. Very disappointing."

Amy glanced at the time, instantly rolling her eyes because she was five minutes late. "Says the man who just got downstairs.” Which was true, as the door had opened right before she parked her car. “I anticipated that you'd be late."

When she didn’t smell anything repulsive, Amy felt relieved, wondering if Jake had actually taken the time to clean his locker. His suit also looked clean and not overly wrinkled when he came inside, but she knew that she couldn’t get a closer look without him getting suspicious.

"You look nice," he said, interrupting her thoughts as she pulled onto the main road.

It sounded genuine, but she couldn’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable with the attention, which caused Amy to internally lecture herself that she had to get over him. Especially considering what she had planned for today.

Somehow, she managed to grin before saying, "Spare the donkey call this time."

"Okay, but just for today,” he replied, as Amy caught Jake peeking towards her back seat before looking at her again. "You also look weirdly calm."

She scoffed. "You say that as if I've never been."

Before she turned her eyes back to the road, she noticed Jake shrug. "I was convinced you were disappointed that you're not officiating."

That wasn’t it at all, although Amy was pretty certain that he knew that already. The light ahead had turned red, so she pulled the car to a stop, which allowed her to roll her eyes at Jake.

Honestly, she was just glad that Captain Holt was back at the precinct. She had planned to be a supportive subordinate, nothing more. Granted, trying to find the balance between professional and having fun wasn’t going to be easy tonight, as she wasn’t like Jake. She couldn’t get away with goofing off like he could. Sometimes, she envied him that way, but she wasn’t about to change who she was either.

The light turned green, so Amy moved her foot to the gas right as Jake spoke again. "Fair enough,” he said, looking backwards again. “But I thought that would at least explain the massive speech in your purse.”

“It’s _not_ massive,” she fired back, surprised that he could see the speech. Sure, it explained why he kept glancing at her back seat, as that was where her purse was, but she thought she had zipped it shut before leaving her place.

And chances are that she did, as when she turned her head, Amy watched as her partner’s grin grew slowly, knowing that he had tricked her. “How many pages?” he asked.

Well, there was no getting out of this one. At least she decided to make this one shorter and took out the appendix. “Only three… double-sided,” she said, holding up a hand to keep Jake from interjecting a smart comment. “I’m not planning on saying it aloud, I’m just giving it to Captain Holt. It worked last time.”

"Rosa told me that he tore it apart," he replied.

She nodded slowly, as she didn’t think Rosa would have told him that, but that didn’t really matter. "Mentoring takes many different angles." It wasn’t like she expected Jake to understand, but she knew that was what Captain Holt had meant by his constructive criticism.

"You're weird."

" _You're_ weird," she countered, hearing Jake laugh in consequence. That got Amy to smile.

 

**~0~**

 

Jake had to admit, the ceremony was quite nice. It wasn’t nearly as stoic as he was expecting, as even Holt showed a bit of noticeable emotion. Granted, it was incredibly understated and every single one of Holt’s family members laughed when he introduced himself, but Jake had decided that was a good thing.

No open bar at the reception, so obviously, he knew he had to pick his moments for his drinks. He was currently enjoying his second beer, the first of which was enjoyed during dinner, while talking with everyone at the table. The food was fancier than his usual fare, but at least recognizable next to what Boyle would introduce him to. Although he was growing a taste for the octopus donuts. It helped when Boyle stopped calling them balls.

After dinner concluded, the music had picked up and Jake had taken a seat at the bar. He had his turn at dominating the dance floor for a few songs, but there was only so much he could do with John Philip Sousa music. Still, Jake didn’t mind taking a few minutes to enjoy everyone else's behaviour in a social setting. Even Rosa wore a dress for the occasion, but her words were minimal, especially since her and Marcus had broken up a few weeks ago. It looked to be no hard feelings, but it was clearly still hard for the both of them.

Terry was looking after Sharon, who looked pretty close to giving birth to his godchild, a fact that Jake was keeping an eager eye on. Meanwhile, Gina was trying to get Amy to a certain level of drunkedness, but she wasn’t having any of it.

“This is not the place, Gina,” he heard Amy say. “I have to be professional.”

“Please, he won’t think any less of you,” Gina said, holding two glasses of wine in her hand. “Jake’s going to be plastered, right?”

“Don’t drag me into this,” he said. Mainly because that wasn’t the plan for tonight. The fact that Holt was captain again was enough for Jake to realize that he could be a bit more mature tonight.

Amy showed a moment of relief before turning back to Gina, her hand shooting out in his direction. “And he expects different things from us. Jake can get away with it.”

He wanted to say otherwise, but Jake knew the truth. Gina also spoke up before he could open his mouth. “Come on Amy, I will even buy the next glass after this one.”

Amy shook her head. “Maybe later, Gina.” 

“I’ll keep you to that,” Gina said, keeping both wine glasses as she walked across the room. She had mentioned to Jake that she had run into one of Kevin’s relatives at the church entrance and saw potential. Based on where she was walking, it was clear that she was seizing the moment.

He had expected Amy to go in the opposite direction, but instead, she sat down next to Jake. Oddly enough, she ended up ordering a drink, but he decided not to call her on it. As he kept his eyes ahead, she surprised him again when she elbowed his side.

Jake looked to Amy, whose expression had softened from before. “You’ve been quiet. Everything okay?”

Sure, he had teased almost everyone here, danced wildly to classical music, gushed at the imminent arrival of his godchild. There were many typical Jake Peralta qualities on display today, but he was more subdued than anyone in the precinct had ever expected. Amy could recognize that his guard was down a bit, which was understandable considering Holt's return to the precinct, but she never would anticipated that he'd spend this much time passively watching everyone from the bar. Some of it could be attributable to the fact he respected Captain Holt, wanted him to have the wedding that he and Kevin had waited years for. After all, Jake wasn’t completely irresponsible.

Still, something was up, cemented by what he said next.

“Fine.” It didn’t take the criminal profiling course that Amy had taken last year to know that the word _fine_ was only used when people typically weren’t fine. She thought about pressing further, but Jake’s expression changed.  “Except…”

Amy’s eyes narrowed as his voice trailed. "Yeah?"

He blinked a couple of times, but his eyes never moved from a single spot. "Amy, do you know why Jenny Gildenhorn is here?"

It wasn’t the question that she was hoping for, but that was one question that she had an answer for. She turned towards the room and saw Jenny standing in the doorway. Amy got off her stool and looked back to Jake. "I told her to come."

"What?"

Amy shrugged, as he didn’t need to know that she had accidentally run into her while grocery shopping last week and decided to make that slow dance finally happen. "She recognized me from the Linetti wedding, and, I don’t know, I thought this would be a good chance for you two to reconnect."

His eyes went back and forth between her and where she assumed that Jenny was standing. "So she’s here… for me?"

"Yes. Like I told you Jake, girls like honesty." Technically, she had shook her head at Jake’s comment about how girls don’t like being deceived, but that was close enough. "When I mentioned to her that you wished you could have talked more at the Linetti wedding, she agreed and accepted the invite to come to the reception as long as she came after dinner."

She took a sip of her drink, noticing how Jenny had finally found them. “So get ready Bond, because she’s coming this way.” Amy tipped her glass towards Jake as she prepared to make her leave. “Oh, and she’s single.”

However, her progress was stopped when she turned and saw that Jenny was already at the bar. Looking at the way that she looked at Jake was hard for Amy, but this was for the best. They were both single and Jake deserved to put this bad memory behind him.

"Hey Jake," Jenny said.

She really did look good, her hair done up perfectly and she wore a cranberry cocktail dress that suited her body perfectly. Amy understood why Jake would hold a torch for her for so long. It was clear in his eyes as he stood up, still in disbelief.

"Jenny," he said.  "Good to see you."

“You too.” Jenny looked towards Amy, which threw off Amy momentarily before she spoke again. "You have a good partner."

"Nah,” Amy blurted, lifting up her glass in a toasting motion. Something told her that this drink wasn’t going to last much longer. “I just did what felt right. Enjoy your slow dance."

Sure enough, as Amy watched Jake and Jenny approach the dance floor, she tipped her glass back. Fortunately, Jake had waited until after she put the glass on the bar to glance over his shoulder to give her a questioning look.

She understood his confusion, but Amy knew that he’d thank her later, she told herself, and she was weirdly proud of herself for managing a decent surprise. However, when he managed a grin before placing his hands on Jenny, Amy felt a pang in her chest, reminding her of the many unknown factors in her relationship with her partner.

It was stupid that they never talked about things, but she honestly thought that she was over these kinds of feelings when it came to Jake. It would have been so much easier if she knew what to do, but a relationship with a co-worker was a bad idea. Even if Jake was one of her best friends, someone who accepted almost everything about her, there was a reason she made a rule to not date cops. She took a final sip of the champagne, but that almost made the feeling worse, so she abandoned the glass, hoping some fresh air would provide a better solution.

What she didn’t realize was that Jake watched her walk across the room, almost unfocused in his dance with Jenny. He had lost track of how long he thought he was owed this very dance, but now, there was a different moment on his mind. The moment when Amy offered herself as a consolation prize at the Linetti wedding for a slow dance, only to push Gina’s great aunt his way.

 “Hey Jake.”

Jenny’s voice shook him out, so he turned his head to look at her. She really did look beautiful today and he was flattered that she had gone through this kind of effort for him. “You like Amy, don’t you?”

It wasn’t the first time he had heard this question, but this was probably the first time he was confident sharing his answer with someone else.  "Yeah," he said, and they stopped dancing and dropped their hands. "Sorry if this ended up being a huge waste of your time.”

Except she smiled. “Honestly, this provides me with some answers too.” Jenny held out her hand. "Take care of yourself, Jake."

Jake shook it. "You too, Jenny." Their hands came back to their sides and Jenny gave Jake one last smile before walking past him.

It was funny sometimes, what closure did to a person. Sometimes it brought happiness, sometimes a needed breath to let the _what if_ pass by. But this time, he felt himself looking around for someone else. It was her fault after all. But he couldn't spot Amy anywhere.

Once Jenny had started talking, Jake had lost track of where Amy had gone. There was no way she ducked out early, as she wouldn't pass up on a chance to talk with the chief of detectives, so on a hunch, Jake walked towards the open door that marked the entrance to the courtyard. Sure enough, there she was, sitting on a bench, smoking.

It was cute, the way she insisted that it was only a matter of time before she would quit. But instead, when her stress levels raised, the easiest way to tell was when she couldn't ignore that one last cigarette. Now, that habit was oddly promising.

When their eyes met, he could see that she never intended for him to see her. After dropping the cigarette on the ground, she smooshed it with her shoe without a second thought, while a grin formed on her face. “Where's Jenny?"

"Oh, she left," he said, continuing to approach her.

"I'm sorry," Amy replied genuinely, although she was slightly thrown by the casual tone to his voice. "How was it?"

Jake smirked as he sat down next to her, noticing how she shuffled slightly to ensure there was space between them. "It was nice. Eye-opening, actually, and pretty sneaky on your part."

 The last part seemed to catch Amy off-guard. "I don't know what you're talking about."

He wasn’t sure if her comment was genuine or if she was playing dumb. It didn’t matter either way, as he had a plan to figure that out. "Girls like honesty. When you said that, did you mean Jenny or you?"

Her eyes widened at that accusation, but she re-found her composure quickly. Amy wasn’t about to let Jake get to her that easily. "I just wanted to make up for ruining your chance last time by making you help me on my case." If nothing else, closure was healthy for the soul, and he deserved that much. “Considering the Linetti’s upcoming anniversary party, I didn't want you to lose your mind again." 

"You didn’t have to do that. I have no regrets helping you on that case.”

Amy scoffed. "Because you learned that I play French horn."

It wasn’t like she was about to forget the utter joy on Jake’s face when he found out about that. It was the sincere version of his reaction when they did that stupid fake proposal. That expression was something she tried to avoid seeing from Jake, as it usually meant it was embarrassing for her, yet, each time she saw it, she found that she didn’t hate it because for that minute, he was blissfully happy.

As memories started to pile up, Amy felt a smile creep to the surface, but she pursed her lips, wondering what was coming over her tonight. All of a sudden, she was more vulnerable than usual and Jake moving his hand to cover hers wasn’t helping matters.

However, that didn’t stop her from looking at him, recognizing the softness in his eyes. "Because I ended up spending the reception with the right woman."

Her eyebrows furrowed at that. "Gina's great aunt?"

Jake’s head shook, his eyes momentarily shut. "Ames, work with me here,” he said, knowing that she wasn’t this dumb, but her expression wasn’t giving him much confidence.

Then, it was like a light switch had gone off. She had cleared her throat and she was looking at him completely different. Jake wasn’t sure what how to read to that, especially when she followed that by saying, "Alright, then say what you have to say."

"I thought I did."

"Oh,” Amy blurted. She took a minute to consider everything that he had told her, hoping to find a different meaning, only to come up empty. In all of the scenarios she had run of tonight in her head, _this_ never happened. Then again, she thought her and Jake was never going to happen, she thought he had moved on from her.

Although, the more she thought about it, Jake was being cautious about his admission, almost too cautious, and this was one message that Amy didn’t want to misunderstand.  “Actually,” she said, “you're technically talking around it. I want to hear you say it."

“That’s fair,” Jake replied before lifting his hand, rotating it as if to invite Amy to take it. Her eyes went between his face and hand, feeling confused before he answered her request. "You owe me a slow dance.”

Amy’s head jerked back slightly, feeling slightly more relaxed. True, he wanted to dance with Jenny because he was interested in her, but this was different. He was just frustrated that she had tricked him that night.

It was almost refreshing to feel her confidence come back, although there was a nagging feeling that it was because Jake wasn’t holding her hand anymore. “Do I? I said that I knew someone who would be into that. I never specified it was me.”

Jake let out a single chuckle, but his expression didn’t waver otherwise. “While that’s true, if you really want to make that up to me… that’s my price. Besides, what's the worst thing that could happen?”

A dangerous question on most occasions and this was no exception for Amy, as she could think of a few things. On the other hand, this was practically a work function, so it wasn’t like Jake was going to try anything, so she shrugged a shoulder.

“Well, it’s your funeral. For your feet I mean. I never did sign up for dancing lessons.” She got a few steps away, but was stopped when she felt Jake grab her hand. Turning her head to stare at their interlocked hands, she waited for her breathing to even before looking at him. “What?”

He stood up slowly, making sure to not break eye contact. “You never answered my first question.”

“What question?” she asked, as there was so many things going off in her head that she honestly couldn’t remember.

Jake’s response didn’t help, even though it did technically answer her question. “Were you talking about Jenny or yourself?”

_Right, that,_ she thought. Well, as far as Amy was concerned, two could play at that game. “You never stopped talking around what you wanted to say.”

She knew it was stupid to challenge him, but she never would have anticipated what happened next. The nod was the exception, and Amy was about to free her hand, but instead, he showed off his first move and pulled her towards him. Her other arm flew towards her chest to balance herself, but his hand caught it.

If all she wanted was honesty from him, well, she was going to get it. “I know you don’t date cops, and I tried to respect that, even after we kissed in the evidence room,” he said. “But I like you, Amy, and I know I’m asking a lot of you to break a rule, but I really think there’s something here.”

Amy tried to repress a shiver, but it was no use. There was no misunderstanding this. Jake liked her. And it was likely pretty clear to him that she liked him too. It didn’t help that she was still holding him to keep her balance.

That had to change though, so she loosened her grip of Jake, adjusting her footing to allow her to be more comfortable standing. But her gaze dropped, as she couldn’t quite gain the courage to say this to his face. It was only fair that she held up her end of things.

“I lied before, sort of,” she said. “I meant what I said earlier, but I also hoped you would see the fantasy didn’t match up to reality.” Her mouth twitched to a grin before she looked up at Jake, who didn’t seem fazed by her admission. That didn’t stop her from saying, “I’m a bad partner.”

“No you’re not, you were right… and you helped me move on,” he said, releasing one of her hands to push a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

He hadn’t checked Jenny’s Facebook page since the Linetti wedding, nor did he care whether she and that guy from the wedding had panned out. Since that night, his focus had shifted elsewhere, as that felt like it had better odds.

She had leaned towards his touch, her feet hadn’t moved and there was a hint of a smile on her face. However, Jake recognized the smallest bit of hesitance in her eyes. Eventually, she said, “Do… do you mind doing a practice run out here?”

“What?”

“For the slow dance,” she blurted. She squeezed his hand, so he kept where he was. “I really don’t want to step on your feet.”

“Yeah, sure,” Jake said with a chuckle. While he had hoped that she would return his feelings, it wasn’t a _no_ either, so he could settle for this. Setting up their hands, he watched as her eyes flickered from their feet to his eyes.

“Okay. We’ll start off easy. Move your feet like you’re tracing a box.”  When she nodded, he gestured to his head to his right. “Left,” he said, reminding himself that it was opposite for her while their feet moved accordingly. “Back. Right. Forward.”

After two times, he started to hear her whisper the pattern and as much as Jake wanted to laugh, he was eventually silenced by the way she smiled at him once she had managed two minutes of not crushing his feet. Her expression relaxed as they continued to dance alone in the courtyard, so Jake decided it was time to test her confidence.

He twirled her once, her laughter piercing the air around them. When she faced him again, Jake stopped moving. Their hands were still in place, but in that moment, Jake knew he couldn’t wait any longer.

“Is something –”

Next thing Amy knew, one of her hands clapped against her side as Jake’s hand cupped her cheek. Her breathing immediately slowed as he leaned his head in, his lips inches from hers.

He wanted to screw the consequences, but he also knew the line he was about to cross, and he couldn’t do that to Amy. Their friendship meant too much.

Then Amy whispered, “I like you too,” stepping forward to help close the remaining distance between them. His other hand had tightened around her waist, pulling her ever closer to him.

It was everything that he had hoped for, as the unexpected nature of their last kiss only touched the surface of their physical chemistry. By being on the same page, they could enjoy this that much more.

It wasn’t by any means a perfect kiss, as Amy did make a couple notes in her head, but something told her that Jake wasn’t going to be opposed to practicing kissing her and that knowledge overruled everything else.

When he pulled away, Amy noticed how he continued to hold her as if he never wanted to let go, which was perfect because she didn’t want this moment to end. She kept her eyes shut as Jake’s forehead leaned against hers.

 “What about your rule?” he asked.

Amy smirked almost instantly in response. “They’re made to be broken, right?”

He smiled back at her before kissing her once more. This one was short and sweet, but it was enough for now. They both took a step back and started to walk back towards the door, but it wasn’t long before Jake draped his arm around her shoulders, causing Amy to move closer to him. The gesture wouldn’t last long, as they didn’t want to take attention away from Captain Holt and Kevin, not to mention that they didn’t want everyone to know just yet, but today, an important step was made.

So Jake let Amy go once they got inside, watching as she joined Gina on the dance floor. She was still a bad dancer, that wasn’t going to change with one impromptu dance lesson, but when her eyes met Jake’s, all he could think of was that he had a sneaking suspicion he was falling in love with this woman.

 

**~End~**


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